Monet and My Happy Place

This is a very strange thing to admit. In my bathroom, across from the toilet, I have a poster of Claude Monet’s “Waterlilies and Japanese Bridge,” the iconic image of the arched bridge flanked by trees and a profusion of water lilies and the reflection of it all. I’ve had the poster since high school and it’s still in its craft-store, plastic frame with slide-on edges. It’s so NOT a dignified way to display such beauty. But when life gets a little too stressful, I go in my bathroom and stare at that poster and take deep, calming breaths. I say to myself, “Giverny. I’m in Giverny, standing on that bridge, looking at the water lilies, feeling gentle breezes and the warm sun.” And soon, I am centered and able to get back at it again. Immersing myself in that painting, truly is my happy place.

What would Claude Monet think if I were to meet him (you know, if he was still alive), and told him how much that painting (in poster-form) helped me and meant to me? Maybe I’d leave out that I keep it in my bathroom, across from the toilet.

Given my connection to this painting, imagine what it was like when I was strolling through the extensive exhibit, Claude Monet: The Truth of Nature, which covers three galleries (including on another floor), what with its 100+ Monet paintings and 20+ more from those who mentored him, when I saw it. In a very ornate frame (no plastic sliders), there was Waterlilies and Japanese Bridge from 1899. At first, I just said to myself, “Oh, it’s that painting.” Then it hit me. “That’s THE painting. The real thing. Not a replica. The image that helps you pull your life together and brings you peace and joy!” I started to tear up, just me and that painting, and a room full of other journalists who’d been given the opportunity to preview the exhibit at the Denver Art Museum.

I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling such an impact from one of Monet’s paintings. In fact, Christoph Heinrich, Frederick and Jan Mayor Director of the Denver Art Museum, in his opening remarks, mentioned that he had a postcard of a waterlilies scene (could it have been the same one?) in college that he would look at again and again. It just really spoke to him. He said it nourished a love of visual things in him. And now look at him – Director of a major museum! I like that better than my bathroom story. Monet probably would too.

The title of the exhibit, Claude Monet: The Truth of Nature, was given by curator Angelica Daneo. She had gone through a lot of Monet’s letters and was struck by a recurring theme that, when he’d arrive somewhere new to live and paint, he kept expressing his desire to really grasp the place. He felt that, in order to really understand a place, he had to truly capture it on the canvas. He wanted his work to be truthful – his ultimate goal was a search for the truth in nature. Sometimes, he was frustrated and felt a sense of desperation to capture what he saw.

One of the first pictures in the exhibit is a side-by-side of a scene painted by Monet as a teen and his teacher, Eugene Boudin. You see Monet’s interpretation of the same scene, having added some poplar trees that weren’t there (poplar trees pop up throughout his paintings over the span of his life). The exhibit then moves out of the late 19^th century and into the 20^th where, as Heinrich told us, his paintings became so much more than just a view through a window. Instead, they were about the arrival of color and light.

The exhibit travels around with Monet to Norway, Venice, London, and to various areas in France. It’s easy to imagine him so excited by each destination, each view, each season, finding its beauty and wonder, trying so hard to capture it. Knowing that, you feel the excitement, the anxiousness, the passion for each of these places. I connected it to myself when I travel and feel an almost desperate need to capture what I’m seeing to show others, wondering if my photos will really convey what I’m seeing and feeling about it.

Take your time with this exhibit. You’ll need time – at least an hour, maybe two. Listen to the audio guide. It’s hugely helpful and includes Heinrich and Daneo discussing the paintings which is the next best thing to being able to walk around with these two, who are, themselves meditative and inspirational to be around. There’s a cute kids’ audio guide too in which one of Monet’s water lilies travels around to the cities he visited, trying to pick up the colors of his paintings for her petals. It’s a very clever way to draw kids into the pictures they are seeing.

Tickets are timed for pacing the crowds. And don’t forget to linger a bit in the gift shop at the end of the exhibit. There, you can buy favorite images on everything from scarves to business card cases to postcards which you can put anywhere to bring you some beauty, peace and calm. Even in your bathroom.

This is the most comprehensive U.S. Exhibition of Monet paintings in more than 20 years. It will be in Denver October 21, 2019-February 2, 2020 and will then travel to the Museum Barberini in Germany. The exhibit draws from works loaned from around the world include the Musee d’Orsay in Paris, The Art Institute of Chicago, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Timed tickets are required for this exhibit and time slots are already filling. We suspect the exhibit will be at its busiest initially, then around the holidays. So see it soon but then see it again in January. Member ticket prices start at $22 online. Public tickets purchased online start at $27 for adults and are $5 for youth 6-18. Children ages five and under receive free admission.

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